


What He Really Deserved

by FlightOfInsanity



Series: Halo Shorts [3]
Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, I fixed it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 08:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5777758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlightOfInsanity/pseuds/FlightOfInsanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fix-it fic for the Rookie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What He Really Deserved

It was the quiet times like this that made him remember. The long hours of training, the combat, the camaraderie, the orbital drops. A wistful smile ghosted across his face; he would never forget the orbital drops.

“Feet first into Hell,” someone had told him before his first drop.

 _They’re probably exaggerating_ , he’d thought. After all, look at the rest of the tech they were using! Surely it couldn’t be so bad? But boy, had he been wrong. Nothing could make you feel quite as small and insignificant as an orbital insertion in what amounted to a glorified coffin.

He sighed and closed his eyes, sinking back into the surprisingly soft wicker chair. No more orbital drops now, though. In a way he almost missed it. Not the drops themselves, but the feeling of being useful; of being part of a team; of helping people in need. That he missed.

Their mission into New Mombasa had been one of the worst. The botched drop, the glassings, losing contact with the entire team… it was pretty miserable. But looking back he was sure he wouldn’t change a thing (well… maybe the 6-hour nap). Sure it sucked, but they’d all made it out (mostly intact) and the weird little alien known as Virgil had ended up being pretty cool, if a little strange. Even Dare, the ONI agent who’d sent them down in the first place, and who’d argued so loudly with Buck on the ship, had turned out to be not so bad. He knew she and Buck had some sort of relationship going on, but she seemed to have adopted the rest of the team as well.

She was the first familiar face he ended up seeing when he woke up in the medical facility on some ship or other. The rest of the team had been sent off on some piddling mission at the request (read: hysterical demand) of the Chief Medical Officer as an excuse to “get them the hell out from under my feet before I shove them out the damn airlock myself” and hadn’t been there when he’d finally regained consciousness. But Dare was there,  mother-henning in an almost embarrassing fashion, though it was _nothing_ compared to Buck’s reaction when they finally returned.

He still kept in touch with them whenever he could. According to a recent transmission, they’d recently all been recruited into the Spartan program and were going through “bullshit basic training, like we’ve never used a gun before,” as Mickey had so delicately put it. He’d heard a lot about the Spartans and what they did and often thought it might’ve been nice to become one. To be stronger and faster and more able to help out wherever he was needed. But getting shot in the head turned out to be a pretty quick way to get yourself discharged.

“Sir?”

The sunlight blinded him for a moment as he looked toward the source of the voice, squinting a little in the brightness. One of the resort’s staff stood to the side of his chair holding a tray with a selection of drinks on it. He picked one and paid for it with a quick tap on his wristband. The staffer nodded and moved away.

He snorted a soft laugh as he shook off his musings and took in his current surroundings. The sun, warm and bright overhead, the gentle breeze and dull crashing of waves as they rolled in onto the soft sand beach. He’d even decided to go full-tourist, with a tacky and bright floral shirt, overpriced sunglasses, and now some sort of drink in a coconut, complete with little paper umbrellas.

Sure it might’ve been nice to be a Spartan. But this was pretty nice, too.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Takes places somewhere right at the beginning of the Spartan training for the other guys, so the whole "explosion on the station" and "Mickey being so not-cool" things haven't happened.


End file.
